Magi – 07

The man who is king…ends up losing all of his metal vessels to petty robbery. The legendary Sinbad has lost all of his bling! However, that doesn’t stop him from being the cheerful and charge-forward person, considering the dark politics that are brooding around Balbadd. While Ali Baba has been found, the political intrigue between nations continues to grow between Sindria, Balbadd, and the Kou Empire.

Although faced with a shady first impression of Sinbad (or for some, good? :P), Aladdin and Morgiana have found themselves lucky to once again be in the presence of people of goodwill. Sinbad, whilst he might be a little too carefree and underestimating of women (Morgiana’s reaction), it is clear that his morals, honor, and attitude align with Aladdin’s. Even when threatened, Sinbad can see what true wrongs are being committed, especially concerning the current social situation in Balbadd. That attitude has brought him great success and fortune, as seen by his status, fame, and the subordinates that follow him. The first advisor, Jafar, acts as the straight man for Sinbad’s antics–a sad, but necessary job to keep his king in check. During battle, Jafar employed abilities unique to those who have passed a dungeon, implying the history between Sinbad and himself goes back a fair bit.

Morgiana was especially impressed and amazed at the sight of another Fanalis, Masrur, which Masrur himself expresses in return when discussing with Sinbad. This bodes well for the treatment of the Fanalis in general: not all nations treat the Fanalis as powerful objects to be exploited and made into commodities. Perhaps this is explained due to the closer proximity of Sindria to the Dark Continent, but for now, knowledge of both Sindria and the Dark Continent are still nonexistent, except that trade to either from Balbadd has been completely cut off due to interference from the Kou Empire. Until such a political problem is resolved, Morgiana will unfortunately be able to reach the Dark Continent, but fortunately will continue her adventures with Aladdin, continuing to be literally a strong friend (I cringed when she got pinned down…did she break anything?).

As for Aladdin, his quest to find his own calling and Ali Baba continues. if it wasn’t clear before, Sinbad clarifies that as a Magi, Aladdin has the power to directly access the Rukh around him, which explains his ability to summon Ugo for a longer duration. While we didn’t get to see much exposition regarding Aladdin this episode, we do get to see his faith in Ali Baba and the promises he’s made with him, though it looks like that faith is about to be seriously tainted, whether malicious or not.

Now, manga readers may already know what’s about to go down, but figuring out why Ali Baba has decided to ally himself with these violent characters is still a big mystery. It seems out of Ali Baba’s character to use violence and brutal techniques to steal from anyone–he comes off more as one to use charisma and dialogue to get his way. However, next week looks to shine some light on Ali Baba’s past, which is directly linked to Balbadd in some way. Ali Baba said in previous episodes that he had loose ends to tie up in the city, which implies that the characters that he’s working with now have some sort of connection to that past. It is hinted that Ali Baba’s history has been fraught with a fall from a comfortable life, so perhaps taking action against the cause of that fall is part of his agenda.

The world continues to grow, as the meat of our story slowly begins to reveal itself. Politics and history are beginning to clash, and big players are setting themselves up to clash in style.

Well if u consider Ali Baba’s character in this show in parallel to “Arabian nights” then its not hard to understand why he’s with these guys. In Arabian nights Ali Baba was already a really conflicted character/theif to begin with :O

Excellent!!! I was totally surprised and delighted by everything that happened – nothing of what I expected (which was good).

It’s a powerful statement to say I’m hungry – fortunately (I hope) none of us feel empathy with that; however to say that you
cannot produce milk for your infant adds an entirely new dimension to your plight and marks the level of poverty in your life.

Powerful. This series has it light moments and its eye-candy, but it refuses to hold back with making a powerful point when
it wants to. So I have faith that Ali Baba’s reasons for his current actions are not going to be black and white, and I can’t wait
for Aladdin’s keen perception to sort things out.

In the manga, ch 34 the impression is more powerful, especially her dialog, in my pov
the mom (ask Sinbad): y-you are….are you with this mansion?
mom: If you try to stop us…we’ll kill you….! We are just here to steal food!
mom: This child is the third, I don’t want to lose any other children because of the high taxes of this country!

This has to be one of my fav arcs in the series. The politics that will come into play was just pure bless and fun. The fights where cool. Plus it was funny. Some of the jokes to me in this ep seem far better in the manga then in the anime. I like how they for shadow certain parts that will play a big role in this arc.

just loving this show, easily my favorite for this season.
so many elements and characters beautifully woven together(considering it’s only the 7th ep) and those ‘faces’ were hilarious(i had to replay those parts just so i didn’t miss anything while laughing).

I didn’t read the manga but i can guess from the episode in which Alibaba and Aladdin cleared the dungeon that Alibaba was supposed to be a prince of some-sort and a successor to a king but he got ditched or had to escape for some reason (the style he used was called the “King stance” or something like that) … i suppose he was the son of the previous king of Balbadd and when his father died those two evil brothers stole the throne from him and threw him out or tried to kill him (Cinderella style) …. but i think he is back to claim his kingdom and is using this group of thieves to build a big group of warriors, collect gold for upkeep costs of such large armed group, gain favor of the people of the city by giving them a portion of that gold and eventually retake the city … just a hunch.

normally i would hav given a more detailed reply but atm i’m having some technical difficulties(in a manner of speaking).
the time the previous king died and the time Alibaba spent in the previous city, does these things add up? not mention tht i’m not sure if the current ruler is capable of running a coup d’etat or the fact tht Sinbad said he knew the previous king tht might imply tht he also knows Alibaba if he was the previous king’s son(maybe under different name?) also given the state of the city would Alibaba really need to join with thieves to build a fighting force?
sorry if this reply is not well organized/detailed, but like i said i’m having some technical difficulties, so i can’t re-watch the show and confirm fact for fact.

We were never told exactly when did the old king die or when did Alibaba move to the city at the start of the series … Alibaba might be a common name at the time so it won’t be enough for Sindbad to recognize him(i mean even Aladdin said “it must be another Alibaba”), maybe when Sindbad sees Alibaba he will recognize him/remember him if he saw him or knew him from the time the previous king of Balbadd was alive.